Jormungand: Perfect Order – 10

One of the many things I love about Jormungand (it’s a long list) is how internally consistent the story is. It’s outlandish beyond reason, of that there can be no doubt, but the internal logic always holds up. Everything that happens in the story happens for a reason – “There are no coincidences in Jormungand” was one of the very first things I said when I started blogging the series – and everything that’s happened in the first 20 episodes was a build-up to what happened in this one. And everything that happens from here on out is a product of this week’s events.

If truth be told, this development has been foreshadowed since the very beginning of the series – you can’t get any further back than the title itself – though I’d be lying if I said I predicted the specifics of it when I read the manga. The theme of the dragon has been front and center (Jörmungandr himself being the wyrm of the world’s end), most dramatically in the first season’s finest and most important story, “Dragon Shooter”. Even if Koko seeks to create a new world there’s no denying that she seeks to destroy one, too. In “Shooter” she railed against the idea that she was turning into a dragon herself – and quite obviously clung to Jonah as a lifeline to keep that from happening. I don’t think the title of the song that plays over the previews has ever made more sense.

You know that when Lehm’s Delta Force vs. a Navy SEALS team isn’t the headline, you’ve got some pretty big stuff packed into the episode. I really think Jormungand is at its best when it’s a stripped-down, lean and taut dramatic machine that relies on the strength of its characters and an approachable premise to succeed, and this episode was an unbelievably intense thrill ride from start to finish. Everything we’ve seen of Lehm’s superhuman powers led us to the moment where they’d be tested against the finest military unit available, truly a clash of the best vs. the best. And as the elite of the elite dogs of war were going through their paces, the elite among the spymasters were in combat of their own – one arm of the U.S. Government against another, and the winners of that chess match against the ultimate revolutionary.

Lehm vs. Night Nine didn’t disappoint – especially after the death of R, the sense of threat to Koko’s team has never felt more real. Aside from Lutz’ cursed ass they came out mostly unscathed, though it was a near thing, with a wounded Lutz and Jonah ending up at the bottom of a cliff in a Cuban mine field. In the end that was a blessing in disguise – by ignoring Koko’s orders to stay put (it was a quietly revealing moment for Lehm when he said “Why couldn’t they just stay hidden?”), they provided a crucial turning point in the battle. I’d have to say ultimately this bout ends in a draw, though Team Koko escaped intact with their quarry Dr. Faiza (Kanada Aki) in tow – without the timely world premiere of Jormungand it’s impossible to say how things would have turned out.

The nature of Koko’s master plan has been revealed slowly, like layers being peeled from an onion, and the Battle of Camp No was a small indication of what it can do. How powerful a thing, to simply change around pixels on the image of a map – powerful enough to thwart one of the elite special ops forces in the world, because it’s something no one would expect. Koko’s plan is all about re-drawing the map both figuratively and literally – completely changing the world by re-writing the boundaries of what can and can’t be done. The concept is easier for a young man like Scarecrow than an old war horse like Bookman to grasp – his “Operation Undershaft” plan seems very much a product of an old mindset by comparison, notwithstanding how bold and daring it is by the old definitions. I’ve never tried to put a leash on a dragon, but I don’t imagine it would be an especially pleasant experience.

Ultimately Jormungand comes down to the two things that it was always destined to, Koko’s master plan and her relationship with Jonah – and the two are utterly inseparable. Indeed, it’s possible to assume from Koko’s behavior that she’s doing all this for Jonah – or at the very least, that her feelings for him were the catalyst to drive her to achieve her dream. And just what are those feelings, and what is that relationship? It’s a testament to how complex the answer is that to say “they love each other” is the easy part – they most certainly do. But what does love mean when it’s between an arms dealer in her 20’s and a boy half her age? Does she care for him as a protector, a mother even – a symbol of everything she wants to preserve? Maybe Koko wants to impose a false innocence on both the world and on Jonah – he has only two possible paths after all, to grow up or to die. And there’s little innocence in her behavior with Jonah in the bath, though perhaps there might be love. Koko has played a sort of half-sexual teasing game with Jonah all through the series, but never so overtly as this – as if the excitement at the impending reveal of Jormungand caused her feelings for Jonah to boil over.

I don’t think Jonah’s feelings for Koko are much less complicated, to be honest. Jonah is a very, very unusual boy, that much should be obvious, but it goes beyond his odd life circumstances and to his makeup itself. Again, that he loves Koko is utterly beyond doubt – and in his own words, he loves the world too. He kills people with weapons he hates, and he fears for his own life and that of his friends. Jonah has played the protector role himself though he’s still a child, and sees an importance in protecting the world he loves. He’s been a sort of proxy conscience for Koko since the beginning, openly so since “Dragon Shooter” – perhaps even the only thing keeping the dragon from truly emerging. It’s clear that Jonah is old enough to understand that Koko is a very beautiful woman and to be effected by that – even to enjoy her advances – but clearly, he doesn’t know what to make of the feelings those advances inspire in him.

The irony here is that while Koko was right that Jonah’s answer to her question “Do you still love the world?” was the key to his reaction to her plan, the answer he gave had exactly the opposite meaning from what she thought. Koko’s shock at Jonah’s response to learning what Jormungand really is was genuine but shows how truly detached from reality she’s become – knowing Jonah as we do, how could he have felt differently? There will be some debating among viewers about the merits of Koko’s plan, I’m sure, even with the 683,822 deaths she so casually dismisses – but if you’ve been watching Jonah and listening to his inner monologues, there can be no uncertainty as to what his feelings on the matter would be. The plan is radical – ground humanity forever, destroy the ability of the military to function – and insanely clever (using the creation of Hek-GG as a cover for an even grander plan even her own family knew nothing about), but the debate is an old one – does the end justify the means? Is Koko justified in making herself “greater than God” and taking those 683,822 lives – to start – if it means she can impose a peace of her choosing on the world? Everyone on her team has always expressed unwavering loyalty to Koko when the chips are down, and she to them – but the key to everything is the odd boy with the red eyes.

Sigh this is sort of like the end of code geass and the attempt to enforce peace thru complete power. A peace Koko establishes wouldn’t last. Plus even if you took away logistics, wars can still be fought, people can still kill. I feel there’s more to this than just separating humans from war. If she dropped 700K people from the sky, you can bet agencies will know who is responsible, and you can bet that because she killed people probably all over the world, it will be her versus all. It won’t end by just shutting down travel. And I can’t imagine everyone on her team would agree to this. I have a feeling this will have a tragic ending and Koko will die…hmmmm, just speculation

I’m pretty confident that Jonah won’t put a wrench into Koko’s plans, at least not yet, but you’re acting like it’s so so far-fetched when Jonah’s whole role is to act as a shackle and stop her from doing something monstrous. Something like killing 700,000 people for peace, for instance.

If anything, she would just end up with 700,000 murders under her name. And she would either have to kill Jonah or do this mass killings without him. Humans will still be killing each other and the only difference would be now it would take 1 month to get to London from NY instead of 7 hours. And I suppose if this were a real life, she would be right up there in with Hitler, Stalin, and all those mass-murderer crowns. I predict that she wouldn’t go through with this doomed plan.

The relationship between Koko and Jonah is rather complicated. I agree that Koko was so excited about Jormungand she kissed Jonah. To me, the kiss felt like what a mother would to a child, rather than a romantic kiss. Jonah is Koko’s limiter, so to speak, and a romantic partner would probably not qualify for such function. On the other hand, Koko most likely misunderstood Jonah’s statement “I love the world.” He said he likes the variety of the world: different culture, different people, etc. The freedom in this world is what gave the people options to be different from one another, and is also what generated fights and wars. It is true that Jonah does not like wars, but I think it would be more painful for him to see people live without freedom, which maybe what Jormungand would bring about.

@Da5id + @Scruffy
I agree Koko’s kiss was not motherly, however, Italian mothers,
for example, do kiss their sons (and other close members of their
family) non-sexually on the lips – trust me, it’s very, very embarissing
to watch until you understand the culture. Been there.

I think she’s planning on playing a more coercive paramilitary Celestial Being (Gundam 00 reference). Basically, she has all the power, the rest of the world has none, and she plays benevolent “interference” against all who engage in war-like actions.

Ruling the world and “becoming God” have typically not worked out so well in fiction. Certainly we wouldn’t have Death Note without Light losing.

Unless you WANT to lose, like Lelouch and Celestial Being did (they basically wanted to unite the planet by being to it could start communicating with other species). I’m not sure this is the case with Koko, however, considering her disappointed reaction to Jonah’s disapproval. Although, considering the tone of this show, she may end up sacrificing herself because…reasons.

I’m not going to go into great detail here for obvious reasons, but there’s enough that’s pretty explicit in the episode that I can comfortably ask this: given what we know of Koko and of Plan Jormungand, why would you assume that this is all there is to it, by a long stretch? She’s built a computer that can, in Scarecrow’s words, maker her “invincible” and assembled the top brains in the world to optimize its use. She foiled a Navy SEALS unit at the touch of a key. Koko isn’t trying to win the game here – she’s trying to end the game and start a new one that no one else gets to play.

Koko’s Jormungand plan is certainly a radical one, however I believe that such a plan , no matter how noble or radical (depending on your point of view) will only achieve a FALSE PEACE. By destroying man’s current capability of flight will definitely plunge the world into economic chaos for a few years . Which may or may not (Im looking towards may) bring global social unrest. My case in point , if man can cause pure anarchy when their favorite football team lost , what more when something like Koko’s plan comes into play?

Regarding the Jormungand plan , I find it quite flawed in how it plans to achieve its goal. Taking away the skies , or maybe even controlling satellites and GPS systems will not be enough to stop human conflict. You can take away man’s means of high tech warfare , but Koko seems to forget what the human will is capable of .

And as they say , when there’s a will , there’s a weapon.

PS: Im pretty sure people like Yuri Orlov will find a way to get past Koko’s embargoes lol.

Reducing the capability of established armies from keeping order only leads to more chaos imho , take Somalia for example.

Rookie. Didn’t you know there was no wars before 1903?? No one really was killed and everyone was living happily ever after with unicorns dancing in doves across the sky… before them airplanes and flying-thingy ruined it all for us.

Without a doubt this episode puts Jormungand over the imaginary line between the good and the great shows. The build up to this point has been great (as Guardian Enzo has been saying) as every little detail comes into play. What really stood out in this episode was the sequence of events near the end of the episode. Koko steps of the ship and immediately begins to reveal some of the mysteries behind her master plan. What I’m wondering about though is Koko’s “Dragon side”, how it came about that Koko truly considers herself to be “greater than God”. It’s obvious that she feels that she’s justified in taking around 683,822 lives for the greater good and that with her new weapon she would completely control the sky and all military functions. I wonder if we will get more insight into Koko’s mind from here on as to how much of her master plan is truly dedicated to the greater good of mankind as oppose to her selfishness in recreating herself as(for lack of a better term) “greater than God”. By no means though an I saying that I dislike Dragon Koko, I really enjoy this part of her character as it provides a fascinating story.

HOLY ****, that ending D0=!!! I figured that whatever it was that Koko was up to wouldn’t be accepted by Jonah. Even before this arc, it’s strange, but it seemed like the further Koko doted on Jonah, the more maniacal she became, if only in subtlety. That’s why the moment I saw the bath scene, I knew that the plan she mentioned would be devastating. However, I only thought that devastation would be in regards to technology somehow, not as in people being killed as a direct result. Even though I was like “HOLY ****!” when Jonah pulled the gun on Koko, I wasn’t surprised by his actions.

In a way, I kinda feel bad for Koko. It almost feels as if she had yandere tendencies as if her feelings revolved around Jonah, and no one else. She looked so happy(and, again, maniacal) when she was describing her grand plan, almost as if only to appease Jonah. I mean, I know she has her own reasons for enacting the Jour plan, but the way it was presented didn’t really focus on her own objectives, but on Jonah. Man, I just suck at words, because now I’m being redundant, but I’m sure you get what I’m trying to say =0p.

Great way to put it. “She looked so happy(and, again, maniacal) when she was describing her grand plan, almost as if only to appease Jonah.”
I know what you mean overall, I totally agree with every word.

I think that the objective of the plan is awesome, right. But the plan itself sucks, and sucks HARD. It’s like: lets make all the maps useless which will stop wars (??) at the expense of a ton of people. If I’m right, the way Koko wants to stop flights is by messing their maps and location systems. WTF. Well, there is no guarantee that tomorrow Jormungand will NOT be hacked, and therefore the people that were killed were killed for a period of time of peace. I am metaphorically saying tomorrow, but you know in a couple of months/years everything can be hacked, what is done can be undone, etc, bla bla, you know…
Another option, lets say that it’s unhackable (which is a very stupid assumption). It would mean that there is a HUGE benefit for the WORLD to be against KOKO. It’d be a race, for he who kills koko and company, could get access to Jormungand, and therefore use Jormungand for their benefit. Epic win for that arms dealer; the world is worse off.
There could also be new technologies for maps, so… a pretty crappy plan if you ask me.

But oh well, it’s an anime so it should not be taken that seriosly. Let’s appreciate the entertainment value of the show, though at this point I would LOVE for someone to put Koko in her place, I hate it when characters can ALWAYS get their way, when they think almighty, or superior, someone put her in her mortal place. She doesn’t HAVE to be killed, just seriously wonded, and learn some humility.

Finally, if you dont agree, think about this: in the middle ages they had no GPS, or satellites, etc and even THEN they had wars.. With a map, a compass,and triangulation you can more or less know where you are. So…

OBJECTION! KOKO, your argument is not Correct and your loko ideas make no sense!

What an episode! Jormungand certainly doesn’t disappoint.
I am not sure why but I’ve always seen Jonah as the wild card in Koko’s team. Maybe even compare him to be a cork on top of a bottle. Once it comes out, it never can really stick the same way and that cliffhanger was just that for me. How will Jonah’s relation to the rest of the team turn out to be after he pulls the gun on Koko? How will Koko look at Jonah the same way now? The preview made it look like they made some sort of peace/pause but I’m not sure Jonah will be able to stay within the team much longer. At least not in the same way everyone had seen/thought of him before the incident. I’d like to be proven wrong but I guess, with 2 episodes left, I’ll get my answer.
Come on, next week!!

Now I’m just wondering if Keitaro Takahashi’s looking around to see how the reaction of this episode is, considering that not everyone has access to the 10th volume, which corresponds to this episode partially.

And yes, we’re going to have debates for a while on how the Jormungand Plan can/can’t work. I’ve seen some good ideas, I’ve seen others that raise some logical objections on why it may not work in the long run.

@Nach

- You’re right on some parts. The others who I’ve seen (in forum posts) have pointed out that logistics and supplies will be killed off, which will slowly reduce the risk of a conflict.

I’m not sure why but somehow Koko’s plan took me by surprise, even though it shouldn’t have. Rather, the fact that she was willing to sacrifice all those people and admit it in front of Jonah is what surprised me, since to us it’s so obvious that’s the last thing Jonah would want.

Stepping away from how balls-deep stupid this plan is (see comments above), I don’t see why she can’t give out fair warning beforehand. She plans on signing this supervillain scheme anyway, so what’s the problem if the world hates her a little in advance?

Jormungand .. the plan itself is not really “stupid” … is not also “just” changing the pixels on a map (or “making them useless”)… is actually changing the information in the network itself .. maybe you dont realize how much of our everyday life is affected by networks (from mail delivery to drinking water, including troop deployment and bank accounts) it all limited to which nets you can “tap into”.

Is mad tho, giving the world over to a single person .. that person (koko in this case) is bound to end up as a villain (basically got the whole word hostage..)

IMHO i dont think she is gonna go thru with it .. just cus of Jonah… in any case.. now that bookman and scarecrow know about it .. is gonna get nasty xD

I was surprised because of the ending, but also because of what played during it. French rap. I don’t think that ever played before, be it in Jormungand or in anime as a whole. I tried searching the song and who sang it but I’ve had no luck Koko’s voice is too strong and I can make out only a few words of the lyrics. Guess I’ll have to wait for the second soundtrack to come out.

Nope, that French rap song was the same background music used back in episode 1 of Jormungand: Perfect Order, it played while they launched the last rocket from Solomon Islands for the HCLI’s global network of satellites. So it wasn’t the first time it was used.

The army would use physical maps and march on.
The Navy would navigate by starlight and bombard the facility..
The Air force would turn off some systems and fly and bomb by sight, just like it used to.
The Marines probably wouldn’t even notice they lost tech. They would just show up and end poor KoKo.

Maybe the plan is to wait 20 years till the military has more death robots to take over with them? Perhaps the idea is to cause a horrific terrorist event, not expect any nation to start nuking and then rule from the ashes? I mean.. ICBM Nukes are 1960 tech, they don’t exactly have guidance systems you can hack with crypto exploits.

Bookman: “Frak It. I need my air delivered Angus Burgers. Calculate on a non networked PC, point the nuke at the toy company and let me get back to my grilling.”

It would be rather silly to assume that Koko will just sit there and watch all this happening without retaliation.

-First, the Quantum Computer surely isn’t inside the factory itself, Koko isn’t stupid, she surely built it underground in a place equivalent to super nuclear bunker beneath the factory, the factory building itself is surely just a front.

-Second, Koko has more than 100 satellites over-watching the entire surface of the earth 24/7 … with a her drones she can easily track any army and destroy their supply lines leaving them without any food/water or supplies .. we clearly went over this many times in the series .. an army without supply-lines is useless .. i thought that was pretty obvious .. not to mention .. without all the firepower and mobility that modern tech provides any army would take a lot more time to move or do anything.

-Third, with her GPS tracking and drones she can easily track any nuke and destroy it in mid-air before it lands on her (she doesn’t need to hack it) .. even better .. she can destroy the nuke before it’s even fired.

@Da5id
Well .. there is a difference between whether her plan “could” work on paper and it actually working in reality, so while her plan might actually work and is technically sound .. no plan is perfect (despite the title of the second season being “Perfect Order” .. lols) .. there are actually a couple of things that can still make it fail.

1-A member of her own team turning against her, killing her and destroying the Quantum computer, but that would require her to take her team to the computer vault first .. i think while Jonah openly opposed her here it is Lutz who will might really pull this off (he might play along with her until he finds a chance to get to the computer and then finish things off), i mean he was having issues with their violent kidnappings, imagine how being part of the plan involving the killing of 600,000 people .. no way he will let this slip, even if he doesn’t show this now.

2-Multiple armies uniting against her in a grand military operation (kinda like in Gundam 00), although it’s kinda unlikely to happen on a scale large enough to threaten her it is still plausible that if multiple countries (10 or more) fully unite their armies against her they might overcome her air/tech superiority and create multiple supply lines and fronts for their attacks .. but that would take on hell of an effort to organize such huge orchestrated military operation (and there will be the potential of one or two countries back-stabbing the others in the aftermath .. so there will be trust issues from the get go .. some countries might also try to get their hands on the Quantum computer to gain the upper hand .. again trust issues might cause this unified army plan to fall apart).

3-If the plan works soundly and none of the above happens, there comes another question, how long can she keep this going, what happens when she and doctor Minami die of old age, will the computer run itself with an AI or will she hire someone else to run the place and maintain the system (and make sure they too hire people to replace them eventually).. so far she hasn’t shown us any signs of her plan being time-proof .. so even if it works now .. everything could eventually crumble with the passage of time, unless she took some serious precautions to prevent that .. which she hasn’t talked about yet.

You’re forgetting Reason 4: These kinds of plans are always supposed to fail in stories in order to show that humans have free will and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Evangelion (Gendo and Seele’s plans for third impact), Gundam Seed Destiny (Durandal’s plan), Naruto (Madara’s hasn’t failed yet but you know it will), Code Geass (both Charles and Schneizel’s plans), Death Note (choosing who lives and who dies), Guilty Crown (the Apocalypse Virus plan), Anti Spirals from Gurren Lagann, and the list goes on.

Well, well, well … that’s a very limited perspective, there are exceptions to every rule, but before i talk about that, why is it that you always look at stories only from one perspective .. one that doesn’t consider the inner logic of the story world and only looks at if from the outside “Ah, it’s just another story” .. it’s cool for dissecting story writing techniques and doing writing practice but i really don’t think anyone could enjoy a story if they just keep focusing too much on the “under-the-hood” or inner-workings of story writing and ignore the logic of the story and its world itself.

Now that this is out of the way, one visit to TV tropes site and it is clear that there are many exceptions to that rule/trope you are talking about .. the villains do win sometimes and carry out their hideous plans successfully .. I’m quite puzzled how you say that Evangelion is an example of the bad guys failing .. sure Gendo failed to achieve his personal goal .. but Seele has been aiming at causing the third impact .. in with all due respect they pretty much manage to do so with astounding success (which our heroes were fighting to prevent from happening) .. yeah the results might not 100% coincide with what they planned but they still managed to achieve the goal they set out to do (note i’m speaking about the ending from the “End of Evangelion” movie) .. and that’s just one example .. in Chrono Crusade the bad guy survives and keeps working on his plan while the heroes almost all die, in Speed Grahper the villain manages to achieve his goal .. sure he dies but his plan still worked .. also in Devilman .. Jin Roh and Ga-rei zero .. yeah the villains goals aren’t always world domination but they clearly win in those animes (and there are more examples where no one wins at all .. kinda like in Texhnolyze).

Our case with Jormungand is quite unique becasue the villain we are talking about here is considered the main character (and Jonah is our avatar into the world .. just like in Psycho Pass .. Akane is our avatar and Kogami is the main character) .. so Koko is literally an anti-hero main character setting out to achieve the “greater good” no matter the sacrifices .. kinda like Loluch from Code Geass (whose plan works in the end), or like the crew from Black Lagoon .. who are all anti-heroes … her plan could work for all i care then in a short epilogue they can show us the aftermath of her plan few years later .. that’s one plausible way to end the story.

Tropes have been subverted a lot .. sure not as much as they are abused .. but what’s the meaning of the word “exception” then XD

Explain to me how thinking objectively about a story is a “limiting perspective”.

I’m saying plots that try to “end all conflict” or “rebuild the system” don’t work out because the moral is humans have free will. You’re confusing it with “villain’s plots that end up working”. Seele’s plan to keep everyone in Instrumentality failed when Shinji rejected it, thus allowing humans who had been assimilated to regain their human form if they chose to, which is why Asuka showed up at the end. Gendo’s plan was pretty much the same, with the slight difference of putting mankind back into Lilith’s womb. Ga-Rei Zero is a prequel, so the villain has to win in order for the main story to take place. Jin-Roh was nowhere near close to this kind of plot so I don’t know how that came up as an example, seeing as there weren’t any good or bad guys in that story. In Code Geass, Lelouch made his plan fail on purpose so that he could direct the hatred of the entire world onto him. Once he dies, that object of hatred is gone and a peace could begin that came out of humanity’s free will, unlike in Charles’ or Schneizel’s plans which required mankind to be imprisoned in the past or held hostage by a floating fortress holding nukes.

The rest of your examples I haven’t seen, but it’s clear enough that you’ve missed the point entirely.

@Da5id
Well, you aren’t exactly thinking objectively as much as you are just deconstructing the story to its basic elements in a very mechanical and dry way, like i said before .. you are too focused on the “under-the-hood” elements of stories, tropes, story morals and cliches that you completely ignore the other side of any story .. like i said .. the inner logic of the story world … which could allow for any sort of scenario to work if constructed well enough regardless of tropes, story morals, cliches or preconceptions.

And i think you are the one confused here, in many other comments you are just talking about “evil masterminds” .. then in here you are talking about “ending all conflict” or “rebuild the system” .. well .. you should know that those two can be pretty damn separate, the evil mastermind isn’t always wanting to “ending all conflict” or “rebuild the system” .. some times it’s the good guys trying to do that not the bad guys … and there are evil master minds who have other types of plans that also work in a lot of stories that don’t involve “ending all conflict” or “rebuild the system” … but you are simply implying that anyone who attempts to “ending all conflict” or “rebuild the system” is an anime villain master mind and that they are bound to fail no matter what (far from being true by the way) .. and you don’t see what’s limiting about that view .. seriously .. it’s a clear example of why i called you line of thought “limited”.

In Rahxephon ***spoilers*** the ending is basically “ending all conflict” or “rebuild the system” pure and simple .. and orchestrated from behind the scene by non other than the bad guy himself .. he used the good guys to end a conflict between the main two races in the story by rewriting reality itself and merging both races into one .. you can view him as a good guy cause sure he is trying to fix a mistake he caused in the first place through irresponsible experimentation .. but what he did to get to that end result surely makes him pretty damn evil (and evil guy with good intentions whose plans actually work .. who could have thought !!!) .. all those humans who got “rewrote” didn’t have much choice in all that nor could they have done anything about it .. so much for “free will” .. the only free will being exhibited here is that of the bad guy who controlled everything from the shadows including both the good guys and even the antagonists (as he created them personally) .. sure he had good intentions but he didn’t ask or take permission from humanity when he rewrote reality.

Also .. you say Shinji rejected Seele’s plan of human instrumentality (i.e combining all humans into a single entity to end all conflict) .. but exactly how is Shinji any different from Koko .. Koko wanted to “end all conflict” or “rebuild the system” and she doesn’t mind sacrificing 600,000 people to achieve that .. Shinji literally sacrificed the entire human race prompting Lilith to kill everyone .. what free will are you talking about here .. sure he eventually rejected the collective human consciousness idea but he could have easily not done so and left humans the way they are .. again the only free will being exhibited here is that of the protagonist .. the people had no choice .. so again in our case it’s only Koko’s free will just as with the bad guy from Rahxephon or Shinji .. non of the three asked the people what they wanted nor let them exhibit any form of free will of their own .. they had all the power and they used it as they pleased .. they all forced humanity into their own “solution” for conflicts .. whether it’s rewriting reality, wiping out the entire human race then rebuilding it, or in Koko’s case killing 600,000 people and taking control of the skies and communications to prevent humans from waging pointless wars against each other (which seems pretty mild compared to the grand plans from Rahxephon and Eva) .. so when you ask me could Koko’s plan work .. i say with 100% confidence .. YES it could.

And just becasue you think the story has to “shove” that moral of “free will” or “power corrupts” into our minds doesn’t mean that’s the only path possible for the story or that the bad buy has to be defeated for the said moral -if it exists- to be delivered (more on that soon) .. there are many stories that are just pessimistic or even nihilistic .. and not every freaking story has to shove a moral into people’s heads … stories are meant to make you think about a lot of things (good or bad) .. spark your imagination … scare you or warn you of a possible dark future … ever heard of novel/movie “1984″ .. the ending is extremely depressing and dark .. the main character completely submits to “Big Brother” or the government and all his free will/individuality it wiped clean .. here the villains win and removes all reasons of conflict from within the main character and subdue him .. this ending isn’t meant to give a moral as much as it is supposed to show the readers how badly things could go for the individuals if a totalitarian government with advanced technology took control of things .. meaning it’s even more impacting if Koko’s plan actually works .. maybe humanity and humans in general are still too immature to stop fighting among themselves .. maybe they need a greater force to show them their own mistakes by forcing them to work together against a unified enemy so they realize that all their wars were pointless and senseless waste of life and that they can work together just fine despite any superficial differences (again a theme found in Gundam 00).

So .. Koko’s plan doesn’t need to fail in order for the story to have meaning or purpose or give a moral to the viewer .. heck there doesn’t have to be a clear-cut moral to begin with .. but somehow you still insist her plan HAS to fail in order for the story to have a moral (a very specific one too .. “free will wins” and “power corrupts” .. yay) .. and again tell me how you don’t see what’s limiting about that.

Personally i think you really should stop worrying too much about the inner-workings of stories cliches, motifs, tropes and story morals (or what you call “thinking objectively”) and try to relax and enjoy them for what they are instead .. in fact just like stories/novels .. paintings, movies or even video-games can only truly be enjoyed by immersing yourself in them and embracing their inner logic (not everything has to be Black-&-White or clear-cut as you make it seem).. these works are subjective by their very own nature as they are meant to be illusions (or dreams).. by worrying too much about the inner-workings of such works you break the illusion and any chance of enjoying said works just goes down the drain (like a guy who criticize a painting becasue the brush strokes are too wild instead of actually thinking about the emotions the painter wanted to evoke with this painting, or a movie viewer that keeps obsessing about technical details in the movie “this scene could have used a wide lens” “that scene had too many actors” instead of enjoying the visual experience the director wanted to create .. etc etc) … that’s just my opinion though .. take it or leave it .. Free will .. Yay.

Actually I guess the Jormungand system apart form quantum computer system designed to mess with computers, is comprised of kill sats of sorts armed with advanced laser capable of shooting dowen anything in mid-air…
So Koko can really own the air and space.
Problem is, there is always way around any Maginot line. It would take a few years maybe but one day some power would start shooting back with own land based antisat death rays and “Pax Koko” would go down in flames.
Oh, and SEALs would have basic printed maps with them just in case, believe me!
That all aside, episode is the strongt one yet with reveal of DA PLAN and moreover kiss-in-bath showing how far Koko has fallen for Jonah… Guess in any other shwo we would be discussing the moral problems of underage romance, but here from the start Jonah was risking his life and killing others for Koko, and much grander ethical problem arises on the classic ends vs means dilemma withfate of 700,000 people versus hope of eternal peace?

I think the SEALS probably did have paper maps, but they didn’t think they needed them because they were still getting them trough their strategic net. By the time they realized those maps were rigged it was too late – Team Koko was gone. Since no one ever got inside their systems and changed the maps before, why would they assume someone could do it now?

The one thing i’m confused about…if she really loves Jonah, why would she keep sending him into dangerous missions? (don’t lynch me, alright, i know he’s a child soldier), but Koko recruited Jonah because she liked him and as time progressed because somehow he could become her personal tacit limiter…i mean, really, man, i bet she is gonna commit suicide upon wreaking havoc upon the world and won’t give a shit about world peace anymore if someone tagged Jonah’s ass…i’m deeming this a plot hole now…until someone enlightens me with a knowledgeable argument….

First off, I was wondering if anyone could resist blogging this episode. I see that resistance was futile.

What an awesome episode!

I saw (what I thought was) the romance starting between Koko and Jonah a few episodes ago. It kinda sealed it here for me.
But, Jonah is definitely strong enough to not be Koko’s plaything, despite his age difference with the Princess.

You know, I could almost feel the writers anxiousness to get through this kidnapping scene. Because they had something
really great up their sleeves and couldn’t wait to set it to ink for us.

And then end took me completely off guard – those bastard writers! Those excellent writers — what a set up to their audience.

What is love? The word “love” (there are several others words in English like this), despite what any good dictionary will
disagree with me on, is 99.999% of the time, a verb. Even when described as a noun, it’s always used in a verbial[sic] context.
Check it out.

Back to Koko and Jonah’s bath scene. This is Jormungand we’re talking about, so you would not expect a tender portrayal
of love to be a dinner and a movie between these two. There was a definite effort to show their love in this episode; becauseKoko’s team does not love her. They are dedicated mercenaries, paid well to perform a job, amorally, without question.
This does not mean they’re heartless drones, but you have to accept theirs is a business relationship more than anything else.

Jonah, on the other hand, has become devoted to Koko (my defintion, again, disagrees with those stupid dictionaries –
devoted = love + dedication).

The shocker for me was that, after revealing her plans and that 683,822 would die, her team accepted that as part of their job.
Not one eye batted…

…except for Jonah.

Why? Why does he care about 683,822 souls if it would bring about world peace? That’s what the writers want us to believe.

I really believe (in subsequent episodes) that Jonah’s reaction, the only type of reaction he’s emotionally equipped to do,
is because of his devotion to Koko.

IMHO, Koko is about to take a step that she will end up regretting for the rest of her life. Jonah can see that and, because of
his love and devotion to Koko, can’t bear her to take that step. His honesty, I believe, is why Koko began to show love towards
him (yeah, yeah I used it as a noun after the verb “show” :)). There must be another way…

Mac, I would take issue with categorizing what Koko has with her team as purely a business relationship. Love is a subjective term (not so much in Valmet’s case) but the dedication and loyalty goes beyond any mere business relationship. If it’s nothing else, at the very least their bond has become deeply personal.

I guess Koko is following Sun Tzu here:
“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.”

Fair. I was trying to show the contrast between Jonah’s relationship
and the rest of the team’s relationship with Koko. You’re loyal to your
employer, but not necessarily to previous employers; you have financial
incentive for the latter.

These are all true for Koko’s team, there’s definitely platonic friendship
that has developed through their working relationship (I attribute Valmet
to infatuation, not love), so I apoligise if my analysis appeared shallow.

ewok40k, that’s a bit stupid. We tend to give a free pass on this old saying or religion stuff, but how exactly “your children” different from “your own beloved sons”? Are they the one and the same? Are your sons not your children? And your daughters will not stand by you and instead run away to their husbands/boyfriends? And “looking upon” is that much different from plain “regarding”? The silliness never ends. These old mumbo-jumbos sound deep and enlightening, but many of them are just silly and backward as you’d expect from folks lived 2000 years ago if you are prepared to look at them past our conditioned & programmed respect.

Mac, I agree with most of your excellent comment – just pointing out a difference in view. I agree that Koko’s relationship with Jonah is unique from that with anyone else on the team, as I think I make pretty clear in the post.

so um koko plans to grab rabbit foot while bookman tell his cia people send the night nine squad after them during which koko missile on spy plane & call dr.miami to alter map data to get her crew safely to keep rabbit foot.

after mission during koko sneak in bath time johan with question to see loyal to koko & kiss johan too (yea koko is a little jimmy person).

then after convince rabbit foot into join on koko’s plan to reveal that koko will shut down & take over all flying planes, spaceships, rockets, etc all flying vehicle which got johan NO NO NO!!!

no wonder koko is loco yea so much everything so now (bleep) yea why do i feel koko watched die hard 2 movie when baddies hi-jack airline that blew up chief o’brien plane?!

The whole “bigger than God” speech felt rather hysterical to me, as in breaking down. It really looked like a theater of one actor vs. one spectator, who she was subconsciously trying to provoke into stopping her from the oh so easily killing some 700k people…

Koko’s idea of bringing/forcing world peace onto humanity reminds me of the Grail’s words to Emiya Kiritsugu when he denounced its methods of granting his own wish for world peace: I can fulfil your wish only in the ways you yourself deem possible. Which in his case is to kill and kill and kill, exterminating whichever, whoever, whatever that is seen as the lesser evil for the sake of the greater good, an endless and perhaps ultimately futile effort.

Coming back to Koko, regardless to what we viewers think of her plans, this may be the only conclusion that she, a weapon dealer, could arrive at. From her point of view, she might have come to believe that weapons, or rather the unrestrained accessibility to weapons, is what empowers humanity to perpetrate conflict, and that the best and only way to stop people from killing each other is to take their sharp toys away from them.

To this, there is actually a similar discussion in the Maoyuu MaoYuusha novel, where the topic of whether co-existence, in other words, peace between humans and demons are possible was brought up. One character express the belief that yes, it’s possible but only when all parties have matured enough to live together cordially even while holding on to weapons. In other words, the ability of either side to wage war would still be there, but not the urge or reason to do so.

From this PoV, the first problem faced by Koko’s Peace via Jormungandr is that it’s only as good as long as she lives. She is the originator of this plan, its chief executor, and ultimately the soul of this project. While she lives, there may be a chance that things will go as she envisions… for an indeterminable period of time. But who can tell whether her vision will live on after her death? And even if, hypothetically speaking, Koko manages to achieve immortality and maintain control over the World Serpent for infinity, can even she herself guarantee that the Jormungandr project would not deviate from her initial ideal?

The next problem in this system is the absolute power it grants to one entity. The threat such an entity poses would unite humanity against it, making it the enemy of the world, which would merely change the target of human aggression from many different parties to that one entity. We’ll still end up fighting.

Should it succeed in crushing all opposition like bugs under its heel, the next potential problem comes when various parties suck up to it, hoping to get a piece of the pie. In addition to the potential corruption of the original purpose, this would only bring conflict from above the table to below it, where the world of cloaks and daggers grow increasingly violent in a world where open conflict is prohibited.

And what happens when even such hidden strife is stamped out? Imho, even within the same school of thought, the exact definition of peace is different from person to person, either on the macro level or the micro details. The only way to make everyone conform to one entity’s ideal of peace is to make everyone think exactly the same way as this entity does. The assimilation of every consciousness into one overmind and the subsequent eradication of all other personalities, leaving only one left, that of the original “mastermind”? Perhaps this is the only way humanity can truly achieve “peace”.

With all that said, I don’t think Koko came up with the Jormungandr project just for Jonah’s sake. Remember that the plan was set in motion before Jonah joined the team (when Minami still wore her hair long). Imho, Koko gave birth to the Serpent to protect the people close to her, the ones that she had personally chosen to stand by her side. Maybe Ecko’s death(?) has a part to do with this? Perhaps this was the answer that Koko has arrived after years of living under the shadow of Death while dispensing It indirectly with her own hands.

And then Koko shoots Jonah and left him rot on the boat, before continue her master plan , she whispers , “I will succeed and even become a Dragon 700.000 people is nothing compared to the future and the greater good “!

ps. what i learn here is ,if you are about to lunch a nuclear and someone stop u and u stop that is because you agree now go rewatch Nisemonogatari and rejoice about Real Fake senario – I do or don’t have courage

Is there any reason Koko couldn’t have implemented her shutdown of planes in stages? Give an annoucement to the military and a deadline (of course with the option to shut down any incoming planes sent to kill her). Then pass along that she’s going to shut down civilian aircraft and a deadline?

this episode was kind of a downer for me, first, they could have done without the Koko kissing Jonah scene, i don’t think Jonah is old enough to have any sexual tenancies yet, which would essentially make Koko a child molester, which was disturbing for me, but in the grand scheme of things(arms dealers,killings,kidnappings,psychotic murderers) i can let tht pass.
secondly, the Jormungand plan was disappointing(to say the least), war has existed since way before air-travel or modern technology ever came into being, war is probably old as human history itself.so i don’t see how Koko’s plan of limiting human mobility will help in stopping the war.
normally i wouldn’t be so critical about an anime plot point but Jormungand has always been a serious and relatively realistic show, and this latest reveal of the plan is very disappointing for me.

Jonah might be young and can’t fully understand his own feelings well at that age but i wouldn’t call that molestation .. he (due to the circumstances we all know) is quite mature and aware of a lot of things that other children his age wouldn’t even grasp or imagine .. and despite his innate hatred for arms dealers his relation with Koko clearly shows he does have emotions/affection towards her even if he doesn’t fully understand it .. he is clearly a special case.

As for how her plan will stop people from fighting .. it’s pretty simple and had been already mentioned many times (probably as precursor to her real plan) .. the show mentioned numerous times that an army is useless without its supply lines .. now imagine someone who has 24/7 surveillance of earth and an army of air drones … she can very easily paralyze any armies that attempt to fight each other or even attack her by wiping out their supplies and cutting them off their supply lines .. BAM .. mission successful.

I find it odd that practically everyone here missed the point where Koko would shut down technology for everyone else SO THAT SHE CAN CONTROL IT ALL HERSELF. That last part is the most important, because she would now become a big brother figure controlling everyone in the world with vastly superior technology that she has taken over and no one else can use without her permission.

Many comments here make it sound like she would shut down all modern weaponry so that even she couldn’t use it. Why is everyone jumping to that conclusion?

The difference is that one has some actual reasoning to it, and the other is just plain stupid.

Her plan actually wouldn’t be doomed to fail if carried out intelligently. Essentially if she still keeps most of the economic and progressive parts of society intact and just started doing a weeding out of anything she thinks will cause violence.

It’s a completely totalitarian system, but it is one that can result in most sources of war and violence being completely wiped out, due to the complete fear of the power of Koko’s ruling world government. So in this new world the only one committing acts of violence would be Koko and anyone working for her.

Something like that is still doomed to failure in the long run, but based on past history of dictatorships, it will only go down after she either dies or is removed from power somehow (since this is the kind of thing that can only be held together by a supremely talented or supremely charismatic individual).

This is assuming she gets to carry this out the way she wants to in the first place. It might be doomed for a quick failure simply because such things usually fail in fiction.

I just thought of a comparable example in recent fiction. If anyone has read or watched The Hunger Games, well, that’s more or less the kind of world Koko wants to carry out. She would rule over a small inner circle that controls all the world’s most advanced technology, while the rest of the world are told what they can and can’t do, or else.

I guess my main concern is that we all know it’s going to fail BECAUSE it always does in fiction, so no matter how clever I
or imaginative it may be, revealing it as the climatic plot twist makes it hard to invest in, especially because we already know the lesson to be learned from it: TOO MUCH POWER CORRUPTS PEOPLE, NO EXCEPTIONS.

Koko’s big plan seems like the idea a child would come up with. Does she honestly believe that her plan could end all wars? Not only would wars continue in a more olden fashion they would happen just about everywhere on earth with all the mass hysteria breaking out.

Her plan would essentially cause more deaths the world over than any war has EVER DONE. Public order could be lost for years and even if it does return people are going to be more bitter than they’ve ever been.

More than anything else, Koko has now become like the God Emperor Leto II. To become the villain of all mankind, to thrust it back into technological infancy and force peace upon them at the point of a sword in order to save them all, knowing in her heart of hearts that she is unwaveringly correct, absolutely righteous, no matter who dies for her twisted peace. Yet while the God Emperor did it to make himself the ultimate villain and spur humanity onto greater and greater heights upon his death, what is Koko’s end game? Even if she can keep humanity pinned to the ground for a thousand years, it will break free eventually. Is this it, is this victory? Or is there something more…

Probably not, alas. As Enzo says, it all comes down to Jonah and his choice. I doubt the aftermath for humanity will factor in, though I dearly wish it would.

You raise a very interesting point though. Because what Koko explained as part of her plan makes great deal of sense when you take into consideration that this is set in the present day. We have become so dependent on technology that it’s pretty ridiculous and I find it very curious that there’s an interest in what would it be like if all of it was taken away from us. You could think of the tv show Revolution as a snapshot of what it might be like without technology for many years. Personally, I think there’s more to Koko’s plan and she wouldn’t be so narrow-minded as to not taken into account what might happen after she dies. It’s possible she believes that after such a long time without the means to start large-scale wars, the nature of humanity will have changed to oppose war because it is so far off into history. Or something to that effect. I feel like she’s going to use this power to recondition humanity.

Here’s something else to think on too tho… She said that Minami built, the other lady breathed life into it, and now this 3rd chick is gonna do something with it. What if she’s supposed to allow it to operate on it’s own within a set program that Koko wants? Like in Person of Interest where the computer has access to anything and everything no matter how encrypted or whatever? What if she’s supposed to give it a mind of its own? She’s a hacker and hacker don’t just infiltrate, they also write programs to assist them or programs to do it for them. Worms and Trojans that screw with anything the programmer wants it to whenever the programmer sets it to. Now THAT could be the endgame. An endless era of Pax Koko (I think we should all use this).

Of course… I haven’t read the manga so I have no idea, but the mere idea gives me chills because that could be brilliant.

Revolution? I like the show, but it has a ton of inaccuracies about it’s premise. Namely how everyone looks way too clean after 15 years without power and for some reason no one’s bothered to try steam engines, which is another flaw in Koko’s plan.

Koko’s plan definitely came as a surprise.
That said, having seen the preview of next episode I don’t know how to feel about it truly: the preview clearly shows Koko and Jonah holding hands, meaning she definitely said something that calmed him down, but everything depends on what that ‘something’ is: did she say she was just testing them by saying she was fine killing off 700000 as nothing, in which case how will she truly use her super computer, or did she say ‘something else’ powerful enough to make Jonah back off anyway…?

On the other hand, I’m not surprised to hear from someone like Koko, who spend many years of her life in war zones, that 700000 is a drop in the ocean if the ultimate goal to bring Peace comes from it, she have witnessed so many deaths that her feeling toward it must be pretty peculiar to say the least.

Last but not least, no matter what, I still thing that there is more to her master plan then what she just said this episode, she spent too many time, money and effort on this.

As THE GREATEST ANIME CHARACTER WHO EVER EXISTED had told us, Lelouch Lamperouge (Lelouch Vi Britannia), the world emperor has taught us all that in order for world peace to be achieved is that everyone must work together for that goal. NO ONE MAN can control the world and ever hope for World Peace. Even if you had good intentions like World Peace, forcing your good intentions to others is simply EVIL. Lelouch subjugated the world for WORLD PEACE, not so he can control the world by FREYA (where he couldve done) and force everyone in the world to obey him through GEASS, but he didnt… He taught everyone a HUGE LESSON. That in order to stop the wars and prevent a dictator to subjugate them, is that humanity should work together to overcome the problems that humanity themselves have created. United as one, not by one person uniting everyone forecfully.
Koko is NOTHING compared to Lelouch! He was far more noble and had FAR BETTER plan. Rule the world and get himself killed in order for everyone to be united again. I overestimated Koko too much, SHE HAS FAR TOO MANY FLAWS IN HERE PLAN!
Think about it! With her Jormungand system, she CAN CONTROL THE WHOLE WORLD! Okay so her goal is world peace, THAT’S AMAZING! BUT! REALLY THINK ABOUT THIS! What happens when she dies? She will die after all, so what then? Who will control Jormungand?! Will the next person have the same noble aspirations as her? Or will that person use the Jormungand for his/her lowly ambitions? Koko really is a fool, even Jonah realize her plan is nothing more but child’s dream.

I can think of various ways how this is going to fail but given the fact that their are a thousand stupidly obvious reasons why this whole set-up should not even be possible in the first place (derp, illegal arms dealer shooting a hundred satellites into space…) I’m not going to bother writing it out and will just wait for the next episode to come out.